"Makoha is a massage dance from the heart. It is a celebration of life and rejuvenation of the spirit, which gives one a light floating sensation of free physical weight. Makoha incorporates traditional massage concepts with flowing therapeutic movements, and a journey
- a story"
- Elaine Denton
(Pungareeree)
The Mãkoha story …
From a pocket coastal village in New Zealand with serene names and beautiful, ancient healing ways - Elaine Denton’s Mãkoha Spa comes from a great line of wise and gentle healers.
There’s a little spring up high on Mt Taranaki, on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island. It’s name is ‘Rautini’. It flows into another spring, ‘Pungareeree’, before the combined waters gently slide down from the mountain and into the sea at a small coastal town called Rahotu.
Elaine Denton’s Maori birth name is taken from the Pungareeree spring (loosely and variously meaning ‘lush waterfall life’, ‘movement of the stars’, and ‘the beginning of life’).
‘Mãkoha’ means ‘natural gift and ocean energy’ - the end journey of the Mt Taranaki springs.
‘Mãkoha’ treatments are imbued with the wisdom and richness of hundreds of years of Elaine’s Rahotu family culture.
The story of the Makoha Miri Miri massage is about a Maori girl named Waikeringa Hemi Te Pua.
The little girl Waikeringa left her homelands and followed her heart across the ocean while voyaging in her waka (canoe). Finding terribly low times, her spirit was revived by the ocean energy.
“It is from the energy of this story a healing massage dance was created: ‘a massage dance from the heart’, a celebration of life, rejuvenation of spirit and freeing of physical weight,” Elaine said.
“A Mãkoha treatment is like moving heavy old jackets from the aura and body, allowing one’s truth to express itself.”
Elaine is a direct descendant of that little girl, Waikeringa.
